The current FIFA scandal illustrates a human behaviour that allows criminal behaviour to succeed. By nature, people tend to ignore the misconduct of others if preventing or revealing it extracts a higher […]

Friday, The Common Sense Canadian — a site that usually provides worthwhile journalism — posted an article written by Keith Baldrey for Glacier Media, publisher of numerous community recyclables. Not surprisingly, anyone […]

RossK at The Gazetteer notes one particular whine of one particular practitioner in the corporate media, Sanctimonious was an interesting choice of word by this guy but it better fits a message he sent […]

In Liberals’ memo shows party’s delusion, Keith Baldrey takes aim at the government crowd and fires a cruise missile through the target. Actions of these minor league partisans suggest Joseph Welch’s famous […]

On today’s Trailing Edge from the Ledge, BC Liberal press officer Sean Leslie disclosed strategy to be followed after the party’s candidate, federal Conservative wonk Laurie Throness, fails to win the once […]

In 2006, Rafe Mair wrote News Media, Defanged for The Tyee. It included the headline: “Politicians, not too long ago, feared the press.” Of course misreants particularly feared Rafe Mair during his […]

CBC finally responds publicly, but not completely. Read for yourselves and add your comments. CBC Editor in Chief responds to Ombudsman decision. Be aware though, they do not approve intemperate comments, even […]

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Reader assistance makes it possible to deliver fact-based analyses of public issues. Resource industries spend millions of dollars each year to advance their positions but my work is funded by readers, independent of any special interests.

The BC Business Party told many contemptuous lies during its tenure but ones involving LNG were the largest. The captured corporate media crew in BC's Legislative Press Gallery facilitated Liberal untruthfulness by failing to look behind or beyond government press releases. Attentive research would have convinced any objective researcher that government […]

In the May 2017 election, only two of the main parties committed to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. BC Liberals were uncomfortable with clauses related to informed consent that would interfere with business of their corporate donors. John Horgan's NDP Government and Andrew Weaver's Green Party committed to a diff […]

With news the BC Ferries vessel Spirit of British Columbia is about to sail to Europe for an extensive refit, I bump this article back to the top. - In October 2015, the Commissioner approved $173 million for the project but, as evidenced by the confidential order three months later, increased the approved amount by $46 million to $219 million. Instead of fi […]

Brady Yauch is an economist at the Consumer Policy Institute (CPI), which identifies itself as “an independent think-tank dedicated to achieving lower costs and greater efficiencies for Canadian consumers, particularly in sectors run by government monopolies or those receiving large subsidies.” Mr. Yauch published a powerful examination of mismanagement at u […]

In modern times, the Canadian union movement has lost influence but not relevance. It is easy to forget that unions enabled a broad middle class. Workers in unionized company towns in BC’s 20th century resource economy set the bar for others. They showed how positive full employment with good wages enables high quality life for the entire community.

When Encana's founding CEO Gwyn Morgan became Christy Clark's transition team advisor, natural gas producers knew they'd bet on a good thing. After six years of Clark, we now see just how good that thing was for gas companies.

When a new government takes office, there is often a significant change at senior levels of the civil service and among OIC political appointments. One person still employed by the Horgan government may surprise more than a few people.

I'm hopeful that writers and readers in the online world of BC politics will find a suitable way to remember and celebrate Merv Adey. He took a serious interest in improving political reporting and perhaps a bursary or award in Merv's name to a worthy student of journalism would be appropriate. Let me know if you agree.

When British Columbia conducts LNG negotiations behind closed doors, without public statements of principles or bargaining frameworks, citizens should worry. I have written about our government's willingness to provide the gas industry with 9-figure production subsidies and Liberal aversion to collection of natural gas royalties but there is another sub […]

Muskrat Falls was always a done deal, and a bad one says Pam Frampton, Saint John’s Telegram. "One week the project was all about clean energy, the next it was job creation, then it was all about being an affordable energy source, then it was a means of foiling Quebec, then it was a lure for mining companies.” The Progressive Conservatives’ sales pitch […]